Something different, drum brake swaps

[qksilver]

I am trying to figure out a rear drum swap, seen kits for it but I have I think the right parts.

I have a bunch of 1/2 84-87 axles from stripping trucks. they all have the "heavy duty" brakes, 2 1/2 inch wide shoes.

I have two 67-72 trucks i am working on. They have 2 inch rear shoes. One is a 6 lug the other is 5 lug. Can I use the later model heavyduty backing plates and the wider shoes, hardware etc and the later model 5 lug drums on one and then some later model 6 lug 1/2 4x4 drums on the other.

It looks like it would work but i don't want to deal with pulling the axles and the gear fluid mess and smell if they won't work.

Anybody do this or have any advice or idea's? It would seem like a cheap mans way of improving the rear brakes with out the cost of a disc swap.

Thanks,
Steve

[87chevy.com]

man, on SpikeTV.. I seen an episode of trucks... they were rebuilding a 3/4 ton of some sort.... they swaped wheel cylinder from the 1 ton into the 3/4... they said it ws an improvement...

[qksilver]

Ttt

[raycow]

Pull a drum off of each of the axles. Measure from the drum mounting surface on the shaft flange to the backing plate where it bolts to the housing flange. I think this should show if you are going to have any major problems. While you are in there, you could also measure the bolt pattern on the backing plates, just to be on the safe side.

Ray

[Captainfab]

I have yet to do this, but I did the measurements years ago and those bigger brakes will interchange. The 8.5 10 bolts thru '87 that I've seen have the same backing plate mounting pattern as the truck 12 bolts. The '88 and up 8.5 10 bolts have a different backing plate mounting pattern.

[qksilver]

it looked like it would work, I didn't have a 4x4 drum to check

thanks